Dem leaders to Weiner: This has to end

posted at 9:16 pm on June 3, 2011 by Allahpundit

Makes sense — New York Democrats aren’t thrilled with him either — but what more do they want him to do that he hasn’t already done? There’s only one option available to a powerful congressman who has personal access to scores of high-ranking law enforcement officials: Hiring a private security firm, of course. And he’s already checked that box.

His conscience is clear.

“It’s frustrating because we’ll talk to him, and say clean it up, and then he goes out and does stuff,” said the member of the House Democratic leadership, who declined to speak for the record about private discussions with Weiner.

“He’s got to put the period at the end of the sentence,” said the Democratic source, “it’s painful.”…

“I told him that he needs to handle this and he needed to give the facts accurately to the public,” [Steny] Hoyer said…

In conversations with several of House Democrats, what frustrates them the most is that they believe he stepped on good political news for them this week, like the swearing in of Rep. Kathy Hochul, D-New York, who won a special election in a traditionally Republican district, and another House vote on a GOP plan to overhaul Medicare, which Democrats hail as a winning issue for them.

Ever the loyal robotic partisan, DNC chief Debbie Wasserman-Schultz continues to insist that this is a “personal matter” even though (a) Weiner’s spokesman has publicly alleged that hacking, a criminal offense, was committed against him not once but twice and (b) an incidence of hacking against a congressman obviously has national security implications. Writing at Big Government, GOP Rep. Cliff Stearns elaborates:

There is an obligation for Rep. Weiner to enable the delineation of what happened and how it happened so that we can enhance our cyber security. At the very least, he should have informed the House Information Resources division of this breach for investigation.

We need to recognize the seriousness of online crimes. Identity theft is the fastest growing type of fraud in our nation, and the Federal Trade Commission estimates that identity theft costs consumers $50 billion a year. Yet, this goes far beyond a crime against consumers…

Every American faces these threats to our privacy, our economy, and our national security, and we should all make every effort to bring these instances to light so that we can better enhance our cyber security. That includes members of Congress such as Rep. Weiner.

The AP confirms that, yes indeed, it would be exceedingly easy for the police to get to the bottom of this. But only the police can do it: Coincidentally, Twitter will only release IP logs if ordered to do so by a court or by subpoena, which complicates things for the sleuths at that “private security firm.” Another complication is that the data might be perishable. If Weiner delays long enough, Twitter may simply end up erasing the logs in the normal course of business, which would mean we’ll never know for sure what happened. And yet, knowing all of that … Weiner still delays. Curious. Do you suppose he’s aware that involving the authorities and then lying to them about what happened could place him in legal jeopardy?

Of course, the simplest explanation of the scenario is that he had, in fact, tried to send a picture of his genitals to a 21-year-old Washington state college student. Weiner has denied that in public and in private. Two people who spoke to him privately said he had suggested that, as one said, “he took or sent a photo or photos like this at some point — but in this case actually was hacked/set up, perhaps with a posting of one of his own photos or something very similar.”

“If that is the reality, there is no magic, good way to handle it,” Dezenhall said. “You have what lawyers call a ‘bad fact.’”

Ace has been toying with (and discarding) theories of how a picture of Weiner’s actual wiener might have ended up in his Twitter stream without him sending it, but I can’t get past why AW would settle on that spin instead of simply denying everything. Mickey Kaus speculated that it’s a deliberate piece of misdirection, bolstering Weiner’s credibility by making him seem (sort of) forthcoming and distracting the media from the fact that he hasn’t called the cops. Except they haven’t been distracted: The AP piece I linked above about how easy this would be for the cops to solve was published just this morning. And needless to say, any PR benefits that accrue to Weiner from appearing kinda sorta candid are more than offset by his hinting that there may well be bona fide “bulge” photos of him floating around. If his goal is to kill this story, he’s better off admitting that he tried to send the photo than suggesting that there’s some mystical as-yet-undiscovered cache of Weiner wiener pics out there for the media to hunt for.

He was supposed to address the Wisconsin Democratic Party tonight but he canceled at the last minute to, er, spend more time with his wife. Exit question: Is this scandal over now? The news cycle flows inexorably on, my friends, which means unless this guy is dumb enough to start talking about this again on Monday — a distinct possibility, given his performance this week — it might be out of gas. While you mull, a bit of musical inspiration for you. Content warning.

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If Weiner had been a Republican, he would have been long gone already.

BUT the reason he won’t call the FBI might not be that they will expose his lying about this incident. It’s probably that their investigation would uncover far worse behavior, naked tweeting to porn stars or maybe even underage girls.

I’m not certain that refusing to call law enforcement fully protects him, though. In an alleged felony against a federal official, the US Attorney doesn’t need a complaint to investigate. Of course if the USAtty for DC is a Democrat with ambition, he wouldn’t dare initiate a probe into one of the Party’s rising stars.

That Weiner could be regarded as a rising Democratic star most clearly illustrates the utter degeneration of Mr. Jefferson’s Party.

Let me look in my playbook…
Ah! Yes!
“It’s JUST About sex”
Therefore, nothing else matters.
Move along… nothing to see here unless you’re a Republican or a conservative. In that case, “IT”S ALL ABOUT SEX!”

ANTHONY THE AUTO-PARTS SALESMAN: HOW MR WEINER ‘PURSUED PRETTY CONGRESS WORKER JUST DAYS AFTER SEPTEMBER 11’Mr Weiner became infamous for his womanising ways after a 2001 Vanity Fair article claimed he pursued a pretty blonde congress worker just two days after the September 11 terror attacks.
Reporter Vicky Ward was following 22-year-old Diana Davis in her first job as a congressional staffer when she encountered him and a group of congressmen at a restaurant in Washington D.C.
Then the youngest of the group – and sporting a tiny goatee beard – he introduced himself as Anthony, an auto-parts salesman.
The next day, after what Miss Ward described as a ‘gently tipsy’ evening spent with the congressmen, Mr Weiner allegedly tracked down Miss Davis’s email address, and asked whether they could meet again.
Miss Ward wrote: ‘Diana is overwhelmed that he’s managed to think of her on a day that must be heavy with import and emotional intensity.
‘Last night he mentioned that he’d be going to Manhattan to inspect the World Trade Center wreckage with the president. They’d be travelling together on Air Force One.’
An intern called Caroline Chatterton, who was keeping a diary for Miss Ward’s article, wrote at the time: ‘Went for lunch with Diana. Anthony Weiner has emailed her and she didn’t know he was a member of Congress.

‘She died when I showed her his card! It was so funny!! I think she likes him, but she doesn’t want to admit it. In fact, I know she likes him ’cos she’s been on his website this afternoon looking at the photo gallery.’
But Miss Davis later told the reporter she had left Mr Weiner ‘dangling’, after he told her she should go and visit his office ‘in person’. She said: ‘I thought that was kind of cheesy.’

At the time the congressman denied making the invitation, and said he chose not to identify himself as a lawmaker when he went out socialising.
He told the Washington Post: ‘I feel it’s a way to protect myself. I think people are less likely to overhear what an auto parts salesman would say.
‘I was shocked to learn that two days after September 11, Vanity Fair was pursuing a sting operation down in Washington.’

Someone should pitch reality show (sorry about using pitch word) kind of like survivor celebrity with the bunch of all celebrities involved in sex scandals over the years, and call the show – “The Biggest Wiener”.

Weiner from appearing kinda sorta candid are more than offset by his hinting that there may well be bona fide “bulge” photos of him floating around.

The “hinting” is that someone else (Dan Wolf) got that old bona fide “bulge” photo, photoshopped it and then, at just the right time moment, when AW was tweeting about about being on the RM show and what time that would be in Seattle, the Culprit found someone on AW follow list who just happens to be in Seattle!

Watch as those cutsie little blue Twitter birds morph into a dark voracious buzzard, tearing into the rotting corpse of Anthony W’s career until there is nothing left but his skinny blanched bones. Metaphorically speakin.

The man’s obviously ain’t telling the truth. How do the Democrats suggest to end this mess? Is Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the high ranking Democrats ask him to resign? Frankly, I don’t know why any politician or especially any member of Congress would have a twitter account.

Of course, the entire question is just so stupid, because everyone knows, and its obvious, that there was no hacking involved, here. Weiner simply cannot seek a criminal investigation of hacking that didn’t take place, and would quickly be shown to have been him sending out the pic. The only one who can legitimately ask for some sort of official investigation is the co-ed who the pic was directed to.

“…….and another House vote on a GOP plan to overhaul Medicare, which Democrats hail as a winning issue for them.

So, the Democrats really think their Medi-scare tactics are going to be a “winning issue”? Hummmm, then they will have to convince independents and seniors that they are just as stupid as liberal Democrats—who have produced NO PLAN to save the entitlement. We’ll see who wins this argument. And can “a wiener-preservation plan” be included in Medicare?

A Democrat can lie even when he is caught with his pants down and not be forced to step down. I have never seen a politician able to so obviously lie ………….. do they give awards for that in the Democrat party?

Has anyone looked at the meta data on the digital photo that is circulating on the internet? Digital cameras embed info in the photo such as the time/date the photo was taken, the name and model of the camera (or smartphone), exposure, etc. If the smartphone camera had the GPS feature turned on when the shot was taken, I believe one can identify the location.

Not my area of expertise, but why is Weiner’s request required to involve law enforcement? We have him stating that his electronic communications were hacked. He is a high ranking government official. A law was violated and our nation’s security may be threatened. Why can’t the police investigate this crime on their own initiative or at the request of House officials?